Huddersfield Town (Home-2012/13)

I play a lot of FIFA and enjoy playing Manager Career Mode. One of my newest traditions is buying the jersey of each team I manage on FIFA. Huddersfield Town are in the SkyBet Championship and I took them to the UEFA Champions League title on FIFA so I thought I'd support the club by buying their kit.

It is their 2012/13 kit as I bought it last season. It is also their last kit with Umbro before Puma took over this season. Umbro are excellent kit makers and this one is a stand-out in my collection. I think it's a size too large so it's comfortable to wear on hot days. It probably can't be seen in the above photos but there are small checkers on the stripes which really make it a unique kit.

I added the nPower Championship badges which was a good decision considering the Championship is now sponsored by SkyBet. So all in all, the final Huddersfield Town Umbro jersey and the final nPower Championship sleeve badge.

Manly's Big Win Against Canberra

When Kieran Foran was ruled out of the next month, I had some doubts about Manly keeping it together in the coming weeks but after Sunday's 54-18 drubbing over the Raiders, I'm feeling confident about Manly's potential this year and beyond.

Over the last few years, Manly haven't been a team to blood young players in the NRL but the emergence of Peta Hiku this year has been a big positive for the future of an obviously aging Manly side. As good as the last decade has been, Manly's players are getting older by the year and they need younger players to step up over the next few seasons.

I rarely watch Manly's Under 20's play but I know that the Sea Eagles are a struggling team in both the Holden Cup and the SG Ball competitions. Manly are not a team with a very impressive junior base. In fact I see the Northern Beaches as more of a rugby union sanctuary compared to rugby league. 

Anyway, yesterday was the debut of Jack Littlejohn and to say I was impressed would be an understatement. A little research tells me Littlejohn is a Wagga junior who moved to the Sydney Roosters and played NSW Cup for the Bulldogs last season. Manly signed him up for this season and once again, the recruitment team at Manly have discovered another potential talent. 

I'm not going to get ahead of myself but I am very much looking forward to the future at Manly, both this season and beyond. The golden generation with your Stewarts, Watmoughs and Lyons may be coming to an end in the coming years but Manly are preparing for the inevitable with precision. The game against the Storm in Melbourne in two weeks time will be a true test for Manly.

-Ty Stedman

My Trip To Edgeworth

I've been off the blog for a couple weeks but I'm trying my best to get back on it and keep things up to date.

I wrote about my team in an earlier post and I thought I'd write a little bit about our game on the weekend.

I made the trip out to Edgeworth expecting a tough game against one of the most dominant clubs in the Newcastle regions.

I'll be honest, I expected a loss. We were down to 11 men for the game and I knew we'd be facing an uphill battle.

However when I stepped out onto the field, part of me knew we had a chance to win. I could put it down to every prediction, every worry about the game being thrown out the window.

That's what I love about game day. You arrive at the ground and you never know just what's going to happen.

Unfortunately we were soundly defeating by 7 goals to 1. I saw a few upsides in the game but ultimately I was embarrassed and annoyed at the loss.

With that being said, I'm determined to rise up next week and put in more of an effort. Improvement is a goal that you can always aim for and most times succeed.

I'm not going to score a hat-trick and win us the game with a diving header into the back of the net, but I am going to play to the best of my ability and try to help the team win.

Anyway I'm raving on a bit here so I'll wrap it up. My side has lost it's first two games and must improve next week. It's a short season and every game counts so hopefully I'll be writing about a win this time next week. 

Chelsea 2-0 Liverpool (My Thoughts)

As a Manchester City fan it was satisfying watching Liverpool drop valuable points tonight but right now I want to talk about Chelsea's defensive tactics or 'parking the bus' as it's more commonly described. Yes Chelsea did park the bus at Anfield on Sunday. They then got off the bus and walked into the stadium. What they did on field was nothing but sticking to a superb game plan by Jose Mourinho.

To frustrate Liverpool with a seemingly 6-3-1 defensive set-up was an absolute master class by one of the best managers/coaches in world football. The Liverpool faithful were booing the tactics but in all honestly, they lost to in my opinion a second-string Chelsea side. They were outsmarted and paid the price.

After the midweek Champions League Semi Final in which Chelsea 'parked the bus' and held Athletico Madrid to a nil-all draw, Liverpool should have known better, they should have expected Chelsea to bring their 'bus' to Anfield.

What I will say is Chelsea's time-wasting did go a bit too far but at the end of the day, that was their tactic and they played it perfectly. As both a fan and a player, I feel for Steven Gerrard. I've made countless mistakes in my few games but I couldn't imagine the feeling of making a mistake that crucial in front of 44,000 fans.

It happened to Vincent Kompany two weeks ago and now Gerrard's slip-up has opened up the title race yet again. That being said, Gerrard will bounce back as he is simply too good a player to let one mistake ruin the season. 

During the final moments Liverpool threw everything at Chelsea and paid the price when the Blues scored off a runaway counter-attack. That goal gave Chelsea the three points and gave neutral fans another week of unpredictable twists in the title race.

My full praise goes to Mark Schwarzer who made some crucial saves late in the game. It's good to see the Aussie legend doing what he does best. 

I'm already looking forward to next week's EPL fixtures and to find out who's going to lift the trophy on the final day. (Hopefully it's Man City!)

-Ty Stedman

Western Sydney Wanderers (Home-2013/14)

Of all the A-League jerseys this season, I have to say the Western Sydney Wanderers take the cake for best home kit. 

It's amazing just how quickly this new side has set up such an iconic brand and a dominant team on the field. The red and black hoops are so simple yet unique.

I may not be a fan of the team but their jersey is one of my favourites and their fans have to be admired for their overwhelming support.

Cardiff City (Home-2013/14)

Another addition to my Premier League collection is that of Welsh side Cardiff City. My collection is overfilled with red jerseys so this doesn't stand out too much.

That being said, it is a neat Puma design that marks Cardiff City's return to the Premier League. 

West Bromwich Albion (Home-2013/14)

West Bromwich Albion have one of the better strips in the English Premier League. It is very refreshing to see an EPL side without any red in their main colour.

The Baggies logo is one of the best in the league and the kit is very neat. That's pretty much all there is to say.

Cooks Hill United

This year marks my first year of actually playing soccer and in fact it's my first year of competitive weekend sport in 13 years (Under 7's footy was my only outside school sporting experience). So how did it come to this? I'm still not sure but what I can say is I'm loving life at Cooks Hill United.

I decided that I'd join a team in early February and my first thought was to join up with my local team Mayfield United. Unfortunately Mayfield's team was full so after a few phone calls, I found myself rushing into National Park to train with Cooks Hill. After two years of laziness and hardly any physical output, I found myself running rampant at soccer training. 

Over the next few weeks I started to find my legs again and now I'm two days away from starting my first soccer season. My first trial game was actually for one of the club's higher ranked sides and somehow we found a way to win. Since then I've had an 8-1 loss, a 1-1 draw and most recently a 4-2 loss.

Last weekend I found myself playing left-fullback and I really enjoyed the change in position. A few of my favourite non-Jets A-League players are fullbacks and I can see myself playing fullback a lot this season. So anyway, I thought I'd do a blog entry on my newly found soccer career.

I'll be putting up some game results and other things over the course of the season so keep an eye out.

*UPDATED Wardrobe*

Yesterday we made a few changes to my wardrobe. Not only is it now exclusive full of jerseys, I also split the jerseys up into categories, put them in alphabetical order and we installed this hook to help support the bar which was almost falling under the pressure of the jerseys.

If anyone's wondering, I'm up to 85 jerseys across 4 different sports. I split up my jerseys into the following categories:
-English Premier League
-Lower English Comps
-Other Euro Clubs
-Rest of World Clubs
-Aussie Clubs
-International
-Manly (my NRL team)
-Other Rugby League
-Other Sports

So there you have it. The collection is organised properly so expect more blog entries in the coming days.

Wrestling DVD Collection

Long before my jersey collection, there was my WWE DVD collection which to this day is still growing. I've bought WWE DVD's in Adelaide, Melbourne, Shepparton, Sydney, a lot of places to be honest. The picture above shows the bottom four rows of my cabinet with one extra row above it and above that sits the Wrestlemania and Royal Rumble anthologies.

I've been a wrestling fan since December 2004, I still remember watching Evolution run Monday Night Raw at the time. Back then I was a big fan of Triple H and JBL (those two were both bad guys or 'heels' and I'd always cheer them on and hope they could retain their titles). One of my earliest wrestling memories is watching JBL retain the WWE Championship at Armageddon 2004 in a Fatal Four Way match.

Wrestlemania 21 was bittersweeet for me. The good thing is, Foxtel had a technical problem which gave me the show for free, the bad thing is that both JBL and Triple H lost their titles. I nearly got suspended from school the next day because I was irate that Triple H lost the World Heavyweight Title.

I was 10 back then but these days I know the business a lot better. I know it's fake, I know it's scripted but to me it's one of the best things going. Watching new stars arrive and not so memorable characters come and go is just part of the journey. So my collection helps me go through the years and relive these moments. One day when I'm a lot older, this collection will be priceless. That's the beauty of collecting.

I've gone as far as going onto eBay to buy old WWF (yes WWF) VHS tapes. Already this collection is worth around $8000 (that's a guess) and the price is just going to keep growing as the years pass by. Anyway, I love the WWE, I watch RAW every week and I order every PPV. In August I'll be front row at the WWE House Show in Sydney and I cannot wait.

One of my goals in life is to go to Wrestlemania and I will be doing my best to get over to the USA to be at Wrestlemania. Anyway I've gone on a bit here and I could probably go on for days about my wrestling memories but I thought I'd give a little insight to my 'other' collection.

Chicago Fire (Home-2013/14)

The other MLS jersey I own is last season's home jersey for the Chicago Fire. The reason I bought this jersey is due to the similar colours (red and blue) to the Newcastle Jets. I don't wear many of my jerseys around the place but this one is an exemption. I like how the navy blue blends seamlessly into the red design.

It can't be seen in the photo but I have a MLS badge on the right sleeve. Anyway, with the new MLS season recently beginning, I'm going to try and buy some more jerseys (Seattle Sounders is high on my must-buy list) over the next few months.